(若大家喜歡我鏡頭下的馬拉松風景,不妨Click樂施會的標誌,資助他們的扶貧工作)

2007年10月25日星期四

Learning Arabic in Yemen is better than studying Middle East in London

I have already attended 4 weeks class and October will finish very soon. I am still getting used to be a student again, for example: I often fall asleep when I flip through my readings, cannot concentrate on reading hard academic books, everyday spends lots of time in library but only read few pages... One year is too short, how good if I can have one more year?

If I draw a conclusion about how is studying Middle East Studies? Whether it is useful or not? The answer will be:

Learning Arabic in Yemen is more fruitful than studying Middle East in London. Travelling in Palestine, Israel and visiting Al-Jazeera is more eye-opening than reading the academic journals and books. Even living with Pakistanians or Middle Easterners, is better than discussing the complicated seminar question with European.(It is so pity that I don't have one Muslim Neighbour) And of course, the most important thing is English.

Actually the best class I attend is Middle East Media and Politics. That class only has 8 students and half of them have journalistic experience including me(one works for Sweden Paper, one is producer of BBC program, Hard Talk). Ironcially, this course cannot be selected because it is from Media faculty.

Of course, I don't mean studying Middle East is no use, although 99% of readings and books is extremely difficult(Zionist Idea, Modernization theory, the theory is not very difficult, but the English is very complicated!!!), at least I can learn something after intensive reading for 1 year. However, if I want to report international news in future, this degrees surely is not enough.

3 則留言:

匿名 說...

" I often fall asleep when I flip through my readings, cannot concentrate on reading hard academic books, everyday spends lots of time in library but only read few pages... "

Well, for me, it sounds perfectly like a student life!
People who can read hard without wasting time are not students. They are robot (or crazy men!) ^^

匿名 說...

Oh, this is Benedict, btw.

匿名 說...

阿陽,今年渣打十公里改賽道,跑東廊.本來發誓以後唔跑渣打的我,決定發假誓報名了...腳七